Into the Flames
by this-is-my-imagination
Summary: Elliott and Alexandria, two potential Careers, run away from their district and the country that had them trapped for so long, and make a fresh start somewhere else. Somewhere that's safe and free from the Capitol's clutches - the factions. AU. Rated T for now, just in case!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi people! This is, in fact, my first ****fanfiction, so please be nice and I hope you like it! :)**

**Disclaimers: I don't own anything but Eli and Alex, everything else belongs to Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins!**

* * *

"Run, Alex!" Elliott commanded over his shoulder. "Just until sunset, I promise!" We had snuck away from District 4 just after the Careers who were going to be sent to the Hunger Games had been chosen amongst the many trainees that had been prepared for this moment for… well, almost their whole lives, Eli and I included. Both of us had made sure that we weren't good enough to be chosen by the instructors, so we wouldn't have to participate in the Hunger Games.

My best friend, Elliott and I had been planning to get out for a few years now. We became friends when we met in the training centre, where we were going to be trained as potential Careers. Our parents had volunteered us and I was drawn to Elliot as he was to me.

We discovered what we had in common a few years later. We both wanted out.

We didn't want to be Tributes.

We didn't want to be Careers.

We didn't fit in.

And eventually, we knew the Capitol would notice. So, we chose the only other available option. We ran. Days, weeks, maybe even months had passed by since we left our District. We headed north, because from the geography classes at school, the northern region of Panem was practically deserted. It was perfect.

* * *

"Wait, wait." Eli said in a quieter voice, sticking his arm in my path to stop me from running on ahead of him. "I can see something, straight ahead." He pointed over a small hill that we had yet to traverse. I stood up on my tiptoes; Elliott was _way_ taller than me.

"Weapons out, Lexie. We don't know who they are." He whispered down to me. I nodded, pulling out by longest knife from its sheath on the side of my calf. Eli had his knuckledusters; he preferred hand-to-hand, but he was also pretty good with the sabre that he carried across his back.

Carefully, we crept up and over the little hill that we took cover behind earlier. There were people patrolling a… fence? No district that I'd ever heard of did that. The men guarding it couldn't have been more than their late twenties and they were wearing all black, carrying _guns_.

In our time training to become Careers, we were never allowed to use guns, much less lay a hand on one. Only Peacekeepers were allowed to use them and everyone else, no matter what district you were in, was taught from a very young age to be cautious around guns, and to never, under any circumstances, anger a Peacekeeper.

In other words, we were all taught that _guns are scary_.

* * *

We stayed hidden just a hundred or so metres from the fence, him behind a tree and me behind a rather large bush, just observing the guards and the fence.

"Are we just going to sit here all day?" I whisper-shouted. "I bet they'd let us in, sure they might ask some questions, but I think we'll be safe here!" "No way, Alex! We are _not _getting caught!" Elliott hissed back. "It can't be worse than the Capitol, right?" I protested. "Hell yeah, it can!" He replied angrily.

In a spilt second, I may or may not have made the most stupid, reckless, life-changing decision in my… well, life. I sprang up from my hiding place and ran over to the fence people, despite Elliott's whispered protests for me to get back to my bush.

Immediately after I had intentionally made rustling noises from standing up from the bush, the two fence-guard-people had turned their guns on me with threatening scowls on their faces. I schooled my facial expression into the one of a poor, lost, little girl in the middle of the forest.

Yes, don't worry; I left my knife back by the bush with Eli. I'm not _entirely_ stupid… I still got my throwing knives in my belt though.

"C-can you help me?" I made myself stammer a bit to add to the lost-girl façade. "P-please?" I could practically _feel_ Elliott rolling his eyes back behind the tree at my act, which he knew was completely faked.

Careers aren't helpless little girls. Or boys, for that matter.

* * *

The two fence guards lowered their guns, albeit suspiciously. "Who are you, and where are you from?" The taller one asked me, a bit of a commanding air about him. He still had a hand on his gun, and admittedly, it was freaking me out a little bit.

"My name is Alexandria, and I'm from somewhere south of here. Now who are you?" I asked, immediately dropping the act once I was certain that they weren't going to kill me right this second, but knowing I probably wasn't in the position to make such demands. Sure, I could fight; and fight well, but I knew I was going to eventually be overpowered by two guys with _much_ more muscle mass than me.

"I'm Zeke," the taller one said. "Will." The other said shortly. He looked a bit wary of me, but said, "Come in, its probably safer in here than out there."

I beamed at him, "Thank you!" And then went back into the bushes to pull Elliott out from behind his tree. Luckily, he had already put away his knuckledusters and my knife into the duffel bag that we took turns carrying (it was pretty heavy!), so Zeke and Will wouldn't have more reasons to distrust us.

"And who's this?" The tall one, Zeke, inquired. "He's my friend, and he helped me get through the forest." I said, pulling my much bigger best friend along behind me, smiling largely at the two guards and then at Eli.

They both stared distrustfully at him, but grudgingly let my best friend of seven years past the fence with me.

Zeke and Will led us in, telling another woman and man to guard the entrance while they took us up to… wherever they were taking us. They walked briskly in front of Elliott and I, talking in low voices to each other, probably about what they were going to do with the two of us. All I could do was cross my fingers and hope to whatever higher being there was out there that everything would turn out okay.

* * *

**Review and favorite, please! Constructive ****criticism is welcome, I'd love the opportunity to be a better writer :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey y'all! :) Sorry that this one is so short, but it's been a pretty busy week for me- I've been having to study for my end-of-semester exams :P**

**Disclaimers: I don't own anything but Alex and Eli, everything else belongs to Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth!**

* * *

"What do you think they're going to do?" I whispered, slightly worried.

"Dunno, Lexie. We're just gonna have to wait and see." Eli muttered back, trying to reassure me in his own way by using the nickname that I only let him use.

I hated nicknames and he knew that, so he kept on using them to address me when we had first met, probably just to spite me, but now it kind of morphed into something that was almost… affectionate.

After a bit of a pause, I asked softly, "You still got my knife?" "Yeah, its in my bag." Came the even quieter reply.

* * *

Zeke and Will halted abruptly in front of a set of tracks and turned to face us. "When the train comes, you run and jump on it. Follow our lead, so you two know what to do." Will said. We both made noises of consent to agree with what he was asking of us.

"Where are you taking us?" I spoke up, my curiosity rearing its (not so ugly) head.

"To Abnegation. They'll put you two into the adoption system, and there are plenty of willing caretakers around." Zeke answered me. "When you turn sixteen, you can choose which faction you want to be in; how old are you two?"

"I'm about to turn sixteen, and Alex is fifteen." Elliott said, gesturing at me.

He hummed in response, whipping back around to the train tracks.

* * *

We only waited for another few minutes before a train came racing through, Zeke and Will immediately jumping into action, keeping pace with it before jumping onto an open platform; Will using handles on the sides to help pull himself up.

Eli and I started running just a second or two after them, both of us confident that we could make the jump. We did, and our eyes were probably glittering with excitement. Both of us _loved _a good adrenaline rush, it was absolutely, intoxicatingly addicting.

I broke the silence, "That was _awesome._" "Agreed." My best friend's response came instantly.

Zeke and Will exchanged looks. "I have a feeling you two'll fit in real good with us."

"Us, as in?"

"The Dauntless."

* * *

**Well, hope you liked this one, and I promise there'll be a longer one next week! Review and favorite please! :) x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya, sorry for the wait! Exams are over (finally) but I'm not sure if I'm going to have internet for the next week or so, so I'll try to get writing and post when I can :)**

**Disclaimers: I don't own anything my my two OC's! Anything and everything else belongs to Veronica Roth or Suzanne Collins! **

* * *

Elliott's POV.

Four months after our acceptance into the faction way of society, we had our Choosing Ceremony with other kids of our age, since Alexandria had _finally _turned sixteen.

She bustled around me; adjusting and smoothing out my shirt, tugging on my hair and just freaking out in general about my appearance (she had already freaked out about her's about an hour ago).

Usually, I knew she wouldn't care about how either of us looked, but…

"It's our_ Choosing Ceremony_, Elliott! We gotta look nice, now stop fidgeting!" She swatted lightly (in _her_ book only, it hurt like hell) at my arm and continued 'neatening' out my dirty blonde hair that naturally just stuck out in all directions.

The hair was my dad's fault. Ugh, genetics.

I sighed resignedly, "Fine. Pretty me up." Alex snorted, "As if. I don't think you could ever achieve 'pretty', maybe just 'below average'."

Dramatically, I placed my hand over my heart, like I had just been stabbed there. "Ouch, Lex. That one hurt," I replied to her scathing, but teasing, comment.

Never let it be said that Alexandria Hale didn't have a bit of an odd sense of humor.

She huffed and stepped away, admiring her work. "I think you pass the test, _pretty boy_." "Thanks, Alex."

* * *

Our foster Amity parents (I don't know how the hell we managed to survive in _this _faction) poked their cheery heads in and announced happily that we had to head down to choose our factions.

On the way there, they lectured us about how important Amity was; how it was a peaceful, self-sustaining society.

Oh, and of course they won't be in the least bit offended if me or Alex decide to choose another faction, so it doesn't matter if you think you're unsure, just 'follow your heart'.

I glanced over at Lexie, and her eyes were glazed over, obviously bored with Karen and Mark's blabbering on about the _Choosing Ceremony_, no matter how excited she was about it ten minutes before.

"Here we are!" Karen said with a smile that seemed to be permanently on her face. "Choose well, you two!" Mark added with an almost-identical grin.

"We will," Alexandria and I chorused, boredom _very _thinly concealed in our voices.

* * *

We took our seats with the Amity, surrounded on all sides by bright yellow. A man dressed in black and white spoke about how their society believed that everyone should be able to choose the life they live, why the factions were formed and the traits of each faction.

I nearly fell asleep. Alex actually did.

And on my arm, no less.

I nudged her a few times to get her awake, signaling to her that it was almost time to choose.

Well, it wasn't much pressure on making a choice for us, because we had both decided pretty early on that we were going to go for Dauntless. It was kind of obvious with our skill sets; I mean, both of us were trained in the most efficient ways to disarm and kill people; what other faction would we fit in with?

While I was dwelling on all of that, the man called, "Elliott Winslow." I forward and walked towards the center of the room, where the bowls were set up.

I took the knife from the man, who was probably from Candor with his monochromatic outfit, sliced quickly through my left palm and held it over the Dauntless bowl.

My blood fell onto the glowing coals as the factions cheered loudly for the first transfer.

While I was walking over to the Dauntless section, instead of the Amity, I looked back at Kate and gave her a wink. _See you on the other side._

She smiled nervously at me in reply and I shot her a reassuring look before taking a place with the other initiates.

It seemed like forever when they finally got to her name, "Alexandria Hale." She took her turn to come forward and take the knife from the man. She made a quick incision on her palm, allowing her blood to splatter onto the coals.

Alex proudly strode over to the Dauntless sector and stood in a row next to an Erudite boy. It looked like he was trying to engage her in a conversation (I couldn't blame him; Lexie was _really_ pretty with her pure gold hair and green eyes), but she keep blowing him off.

I'd be lying if I said it didn't amuse me from my spot a few rows behind her. I quietly snickered as I watched his fourth attempt to make small talk.

* * *

The last sixteen year old had been called and the Dauntless led us up the stairs of the building where everyone runs and pushes their way through into the fresh air.

I felt amazing, exhilarant even, as I dashed up the stairs, catching up to Alex.

"Hey," She said with a grin. "Hey yourself," I replied, her infectious grin making its way onto my face. "Liking Dauntless so far?" "Of course!" She laughs, neither of us were even out of breath yet, unlike that Candor transfer that we had just run past.

We all rushed down the street, cutting off a few cars here and there, whilst making our way to the train tracks. The loud whistle of the train made itself known amongst the screams and hollers of the Dauntless.

Right when the train comes into view, they all started sprinting, keeping in line with the cars before leaping into the inside of the train.

Some initiates (mostly transfers) seemed to be hesitant to make the jump into the train, so Kate and I just used the opportunity to push past them and we successfully made our way into the open carriage.

* * *

A tan, brown haired Dauntless boy greets us once we're safely inside, grinning at the both of us and introducing himself, "I'm Gabriel, and you seem quite well acquainted with jumping, for banjo-strummers, I mean." He added with a wink, gesturing at our bright clothes.

We simultaneously looked down at our shirts, and Kate picked at her's a bit self consciously. I shrugged, looked down at my rather small best friend and shrugged again.

"Well, I'm Elliott and this is Alexandria." I introduced us both, casually gesturing to me over her shoulder.

"Cool, nice to meet'cha! Call me Gabe, and don't worry 'bout the initiation too much; I got two brothers and they both say it'll be okay." Gabriel said with a small, but reassuring smile.

"Thanks," Alex said with a grin, and I knew that he was going to end up as a friend; she was a good judge of character.

We heard Gabriel's name starting to get called by a girl on the other side of the car and with another wink and flash of teeth, he was gone.

Alex turned to look at me, "Well, he was an interesting one, huh?" "Yeah," I absentmindedly agreed with her, thinking on how we were going to go through initiation. No doubt it would be pretty easy (compared to our training as Careers), so would we just stick together and ignore everyone else? Make more friends? Make _enemies_?

No. The 'enemies' one sounded like a horrible idea.

"So," She nudged me. "Whatcha' thinking about, Eli?"

"Just thinking… how should we do the initiation? Plan it, wing it?" I now focused my attention on her; Alex's opinion was important to me, even though she didn't _always_ make the most logical decisions.

"Hmm. Wing it." She answered after thinking for a bit. I waited for her to explain, "It's just that we don't know what kind of people are going through the initiation with us; if they're friend-worthy material, then we'll make friends, if they're enemy-worthy material, we'll piss 'em off."

I nodded along, "Agreed then. Winging it."

* * *

Someone in the train car yelled for us to jump onto a rooftop that we were just about to pass by. Alex leapt off a split second before me, both of us softening our landings by landing on our fingertips and the balls of our feet in a crouched position.

A man was waiting for us, introducing himself as Max, a leader, and asking if there were any volunteers to jump off the roof first.

I stepped forward, ever the adrenaline junkie, and launched myself off the rooftop.

* * *

**Hope you liked this chapter and review/favorite please! :) x**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! This one might be the last one for another week or two cause I don't think I'm gonna have internet for a while! :( Oh, and everything from here on will be in Alexandria's point of view unless stated otherwise! (mostly because I'm not very good at writing in a male point of view... I am female, after all!)**

**Disclaimers: I only own Elliott and Alexandria, everything else belongs to Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth!**

* * *

Alexandria's POV.

Right after Elliott had made the jump off of the roof, I immediately stepped forward to take his place, not allowing anyone the chance to take a spot before me.

A Dauntless born whistled loudly, "_Two_ Amity in a row, and as the first and second jumpers? I doubt _this_ little girl'll make the jump!"

Others started sniggering and agreeing with him that such a small 'Amity' girl would never in a million years have the courage to take the jump off the roof.

I whipped around, glaring directly at the boy who had made the first comment before throwing myself over the edge with a grin on my face as I plummeted.

* * *

As I hit the netting at the bottom, all the air rushed out of my lungs and I found myself greeted by a blonde girl who couldn't have been older than sixteen or seventeen and a tall, dark haired boy that was probably around nineteen or twenty.

"Welcome to Dauntless, what's your name?" The boy asked with an upward twitch of lips that seems both cold and warm at the same time.

"Alexandria. Call me Alex." I replied immediately. He nodded and pulled me off the netting right before the next jumper dropped down.

I slunk over and took a place next to Elliott, my eyes instinctively scanning over the room in search of potential threats to our safety. After I was satisfied that nothing was out to get us, I allowed myself to relax a fraction and wait for all the initiates to jump down.

Making a few quick mental calculations, I realized that there were probably going to be around seventeen initiates vying for a place in Dauntless; there were originally nineteen (I had kept track at the Choosing Ceremony), but I had seen that two of them hadn't made the initial jump onto the train (one Candor and one Erudite), but didn't check and see if there were any others that didn't make it, Eli and I were one of the first to leap onto the open cars, after all.

* * *

Finally, after all of the initiates had jumped, the Dauntless started cheering as two boys (one of them looked familiar…) and a girl led us to a place that they called the 'Pit'.

"Now, we're going to split you into two groups; the transfers and the Dauntless born." The boy that had pulled me out of the net announced.

"I'm Four and I'll be taking the transfers, along with Six," The short, blonde girl gave a small wave, which would've been friendly without that scowl on her face. (intimidation tactics, maybe?)

"Lauren'll be taking the Dauntless born, but she's not here right now, so Zeke will take you for today."

So _that's _why he was so familiar; it was Zeke, the guy that had helped gotten us places in Amity (no matter how much we both detested that place).

Zeke turned to the Dauntless born and quipped, "Follow me, I assume you all don't need a tour of the place?" He gave a discreet wink in the general direction of me and Elliott, as if saying _'good luck!'_.

God knows we'd need it; Four looked like he could work us all until we dropped dead; and was perfectly fine with doing so.

Ugh, this was going to be a _long_ initiation.

I whispered my thoughts to Eli and he chuckled quietly, replying with an _'it'll be okay, Lexie'_ as reassurance that I didn't really need; he knew that I was just being melodramatic because I didn't like to work, not because I wasn't strong enough to handle what Four threw in our direction.

Humph, of course I was.

* * *

Four and Six showed us around the compound; the Pit, the mess hall and the initiate dormitories. They also explained the process of Dauntless initiation and a lot of kids complained about the 'unfair' setup.

Elliott and I exchanged grins. Looked like it was going to be a bit of 'survival of the fittest'. _This_, we excelled at. It was practically our life story in Panem.

After choosing our beds for the rest of initiation, they took us back to the mess hall to eat. We filled up on burgers and a few vegetables, then went to look for a table to sit at.

Gabe waved us over to the table he was sitting at with some other Dauntless born.

"Hey," I said, smiling. Eli echoed me as we took seats next to each other.

"I'm Alexandria, call me Alex." "I'm Elliott."

Gabe nudged the girl next to him; tall with long black hair and blue eyes, "Introduce yourselves, you're gonna have to talk to them _sometime_…" He teased lightly, winking at us.

The girl rolled her eyes but smiled at us and said, "I'm Gwendolyn, call me Gwen."

The other boy with light blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes introduced himself as Jaime.

The Dauntless definitely didn't eat it silence; the mess hall was full of talking and laughter, and our table was no different. Gabe, Jaime and Gwen were rowdy (in a good way) and cheerful, but Eli and I were content with watching them and laughing along with things that we found funny.

* * *

Another boy with brown hair and tan skin came practically skipping over to our table (he and Gabe definitely could've been related…) and sat down next to me.

"This is Uriah, my _really_ embarrassing older brother…" Gabe muttered, but it was just loud enough for us to hear. Jaime laughed, "Come on, Gabe; he's not _that _bad!"

Huh, so they _were_ related.

Uriah gave a mischievous smile, "Nice to meet you…?"

"Alexandria. Alex is preferred, if you please." I grinned back, pretending that I had a civil manner that I had actually lacked.

Eli cleared his throat discretely, smirking. "I'm Elliott."

"_Ellllllllllllllliott!_ Nice to meet you, bro!" Uriah said cheerfully, giving him a few 'manly pats' on the back.

* * *

Zeke passed by our table, ruffling Gabriel's hair and saying nicely (evilly), "Good luck, squirt! Initiation's gonna be _so _fun!" Four and Six were with him, giving him gazes of slight pity and nodding politely at us.

We both smiled back while Gabe groaned and turned red. "God, _my brothers_..."

All of us snickered at our friend's predicament and both of his brothers exchanged smirks as if saying _'job well done'_.

Simultaneously, they departed the table, Uriah yelling over his shoulder, "Bye!" Gwen and I were the only ones who replied in kind, waving at the older group.

Gabriel scolded us, waving his hands around. "No. No, no, no, no, _no_! They are the _enemy_. Do _not_ be nice to them! No, no, no, no, no. _Enemy_. Repeat after me: _en-ee-mie_."

Jaime and Elliott laughed at his antics while Gwen and I grudgingly did what he told us to, our attempts at hiding amused smiles failing miserably.

* * *

After dinner, we all split up; Gwen, Jaime and Gabe going with Zeke and Eli and me going with Four and Six, promising to sit with each other tomorrow.

"_Back to the dorms we go, oh back to the dorms we go_…" Elliott was singing under his breath as our instructors led us back to the dorms.

"Tomorrow, we're going to be starting weapons training. Get some sleep, it's pretty exhausting for beginners." Four commanded, shutting off the lights.

Elliott and I shared a bunk; him on bottom and me on top.

"'Night Eli." I whispered, hanging my head down from my bed.

The dark lump under the blankets turned to look at my upside down head and he blinked blearily. "'Night Lex. Sleep tight."

I withdrew my head from his bunk, satisfied (it was a bit childish, but it helped me sleep at night and he knew that). Drawing the duvet up to my neck and snuggling into my pillow (yes, vicious/merciless/martial artist teenagers can snuggle!), I allowed myself to enter my downwards spiral into darkness.

* * *

**Soooo, I hope that was a pretty satisfying chapter and I think that I'm planning on posting up the next one sometime next week, yes? :) x**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry about the wait, guys, but I'm back from the 'hell without internet' as some of my friends have taken to calling it. I'll try to update soon! x**

******Disclaimers: I only own Elliott and Alexandria, everything else belongs to Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins!**

* * *

"Rise and shine!" A voice penetrated my sleep and I groggily opened my eyes to the lights that had just came on. Letting my retinas get adjusted to the brightness after spending so many hours in the dark only took a few seconds and I jumped off the top bunk, not even bothering with the ladder.

Smacking Elliott lightly in the arm a few times proved enough to get a reaction out of him (he rolled over onto his side) and punching him in the back got an even better one (he practically sprang up, hitting his head on my mattress).

Laughing, I informed him that we had to head down to the mess hall.

Eli got out of bed, throwing on a shirt while shooting me a death glare. I snickered lightly, though having the sense not to face my best friend while doing so.

Best friend he may be, but Elliott Winslow was definitely _not _a morning person.

* * *

Even when we arrived in the mess hall, he was still annoyed that he had to get out of bed, and it showed quite visibly on his face. It was so obvious that even Jaime and Gabe noticed and asked about it (even though I had only known them for a day or two, I had already realized that they were total dimwits. Kidding. Kind of…).

Stage whispering, I replied, "He's not a morning person," while smirking at the irritated, muscular blonde to my right.

They laughed loudly and threw half sympathetic/half amused glances at Elliott. He grumbled while angrily tearing at his blueberry muffin.

* * *

Four, Six and another blonde that I assumed to be Lauren, interrupted our conversation to tell us to follow them into the training rooms and any person who was absent was immediately cut out of the program.

It was safe to say that there were no initiates in the mess hall about five seconds later.

"Good, you're all here." Four commented absent mindedly after taking a quick scan of the seven faction transfers in the room.

"This is 'how to throw knives'," Six announced. ("For dummies," Four muttered.) "We'll show you how to throw them, and then you'll have a turn."

She got up in front of a paper target and adjusted the knife in her palm. Four commented on a proper stance and how to aim while his partner demonstrated.

* * *

"…and then you release it, and with the right amount of force behind your throw, the knife should make it to the target." Just as Six threw the knife into the bulls-eye of the target, I had resurfaced from the depths of my subconscious (obviously, I knew how to throw knives) and with the slight eyebrow raise in my direction from Four, I knew that he had noticed.

"Everyone take three knives from the table over there," He ordered. "And throw them. Once you get three in a row into the first few middle rings, come get either me or Six to assess you and then you're allowed to experiment with your knives."

Everyone swarmed the table but Elliott and I stayed back, awkwardly standing near the instructors, throwing glances at them every now and then, but quickly looking back elsewhere before they noticed (of course they did).

After the chaos at the table died down, we headed over and picked up three each, taking the two targets on the left end that were next to each other.

* * *

For a while, we observed all the faction transfers and their attempts at knife throwing. The first person to hit the target was the Erudite boy that was talking to me at the Choosing Ceremony, Oliver. His (fourth) attempt earned him a knife in the outer rings.

He smiled proudly at his throw (I rolled my eyes) while everyone else (sans me and Eli) looked on rather enviously.

Elliott and I exchanged a quick glance and we both turned to our targets and quickly six knives buried themselves into the middle rings of our two targets; if Elliott was a bit faster, I'd say that we were synchronized.

Mine were slightly more accurate than Eli's, but that was mostly because my specialty covered it and his didn't, though that didn't mean that he wasn't trained to throw knives (he definitely was).

* * *

At the same time, we raised our hands, slight smirks adorning both of our faces, to get Six and/or Four's attention.

It wasn't that hard, as both of the instructors came over to the end after seeing the both of us nail all three of our knives into the middle of our targets.

"I suppose you've been previously instructed in knife throwing?" Four inquired, amusement veiled underneath his serious expression.

Elliott nodded, "Quite extensively."

"But I didn't think Amity even _had_ weapons, do they?" Six asked.

We both answered negatively.

"Then how…?" "We were placed into Amity after spending most of our lives… elsewhere." I answered (Elliott was never really the speaking type; more like punch first, ask questions later).

"Ah." Six appeared to be filing away the information that we had just given her for possible future reference. Four nodded silently, his serious expression still veiling his actual emotions, which I found to be intense curiosity after studying him for a while (he was quite the master at hiding his thoughts).

"Well," Six said cheerfully after a long, awkward silence between the four of us, "Looks like you two can have some free time!"

I exchanged another glance with Elliott (seemed like we'd been doing a lot of that lately…) and we both shrugged and took more knives, touching up on different skills.

* * *

It was pretty entertaining watching everyone else try (and fail) at skills that we had already mastered around ten years beforehand (Yes, we laughed. Yes, we were mean).

After getting our fill of amusement from that, we finally made a start on other skills which we (unenthusiastically) acknowledged that we needed to practice.

It was another hour of throwing knives blindfolded, with our backs turned to the targets, rapid-fire at various objects in the room (there wasn't much to choose from), and eventually just at each other; while Four and Six looked on disapprovingly (Six muttered something in her fellow instructor's ear that made his expression turn sheepish, much to her amusement).

* * *

Four stepped forward, clapping his hands together loudly and announcing that training was over for today, adding, "Congratulations to Elliott and Alexandria for… _mastering_ that skill so easily." He smirked.

Eli rolled his eyes and I kept my expression blank except for my eyes which I knew held a combination of annoyance and pride, knowing that all the other initiates in the room were making judgments of us.

We were all dismissed by the instructors, and with our arms linked; displaying our obvious allegiance to one another, Elliott and I departed to the dormitories.

* * *

**Sooo, I need you guys' opinions on some stuff like... Alexandria/Elliott romance or friendship? Do you guys want more of Elliott's POV? And just a few 'fun' facts, I modeled some of my characters after people in Game of Thrones. Alex's appearance is modeled after Myrcella Baratheon and I got Jaime's name from Jaime Lannister. (excuuuuuse me if I had a crush on the character! I may or may not have gotten over it yet… whatever :3) Anyways, hope you liked the chapter and please, please, please review & favourite! x**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the long wait in between chapters, I've had a bit of stuff going on :( x**

**Disclaimers: I only own Elliott and Alexandria, everything else belongs to Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins!**

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"So," I said, lying on my bed with my arms folded behind my neck, "How'd you think the day went?"

Elliott's voice came from down below me, where he was probably sprawled out with his arms and legs akimbo. "I think it was okay. If we haven't already made people envious 'cause of our great looks," He joked. "Then we've probably made 'em jealous of our totally badass knife skills!"

* * *

"Mm, so people'll wanna be our _friends_?" I asked sarcastically. I knew people were bound to be jealous that we could hit the bulls-eye so easily; if they were jealous of some kid who could hit the outer rings of the target (lame) on his fourth attempt.

"Friends?" Eli snorted. "_Yeah_,_ right_."

I smirked, but added, "At least we've got Gabe n' Gwen n' Jaime."

"Yeah, Dauntless born. Not in our initiate group."

* * *

"Well-" I was cut off by the door to the dormitories opening and slamming shut. Two pairs of footsteps were making their way over to our bunk.

"Yes, how may we help you?" I asked from the top, peering over the railing of my bed. Elliott just observed from his spread-eagle position.

"We were wondering why you two were only registered into Amity just six months ago." Six answered my (rhetorical) question. Four was standing by her side with his arms crossed, as if we were planning on fighting them or something (it probably wasn't 'or something', though).

"How'd you find out?" I asked, half evading the question/half out of curiosity.

"When I'm not training initiates; which is for most of the year, actually, I'm working with the computers, in the control room, so I have access to files and other... information." Four answered, his arms still crossed with a slight scowl etched on his face.

"Now that he's answered your question, tell us why you've only been registered for only six months. Are you a threat to our society?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Elliott cut in. "Back up a bit there; we're not threats at all! We were just looking for a better life, we're from outside the fence."

"Outside the fence? I thought there was nothing there." Six said, all hostility away now, and she now looked intrigued. Four did too, since he had uncrossed his arms and no longer looked _too _threatening (he somehow always did).

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"Yeeeeaah, that's kind of a white lie," I said. "There's a country, called Panem and it's… not exactly the nicest place."

"How so?" Four looked… kind of concerned?

"Well, every year, the Capitol (which Eli explained was like the headquarters of the country) rounds up two children, a boy and a girl, from each district ("There are twelve in total," Elliott added) and sends them off to fight to the death in a competition for the Capitol's entertainment, called the 'Hunger Games'."

"That's horrible!" They both exclaimed.

"Yeah, kind of." Elliott agreed, I nodded. "We were- are from District 4 and we were trained to fight in the Hunger Games; we were trained to win."

"Oh," Six said in a small voice. "So, you were trained to," She took a small breath before continuing on. "_K__ill_ people?"

"Yeah, we were. I know it sounds kind of… heartless, but it doesn't really bother us anymore. I mean, it _used_ to, like when we were seven, but not anymore. We can still care about people and everything, it's just that we're not scared to spill a little blood. …or take a few lives, I guess." I explained, shrugging. "Sounds insensitive, huh?" A short, self-mocking bark of laughter issued from my mouth.

"Um, a bit…" Six said apologetically. Four shrugged, probably preferring not to agree and possibly offend us.

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it. We're pretty normal." Elliott assured them, casually brushing it off, but the dagger that he was twirling through his fingers kind of contradicted his statement. Six and Four leered at it when he stated that we were normal people.

I couldn't really find it within myself to blame them.

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"Oh hey, I forgot," Six said suddenly, as if she had failed to remember something important. "Call me Tris. Six is kind of my… work name."

"Sure thing... Tris."

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**A/N: Sorry that it's so short, but I thought it was the perfect place to end the chapter! :3 (it's obviously not because I didn't have enough time to write more, psssssssh…) Okay fine, it's a bit of both (a bit more of the latter, though), plus the fact that I've been sick for the past week, but slowly (and surely) making a recovery :) Hope you enjoyed that one and review & favourite please! x**


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